We are very concerned about a bill that an NC Representative, Rep. Hudson, introduced in Congress that allows people with a concealed carry permit from ANY state to carry a hidden loaded weapon in NC.

“But an advocate with a gun control group said the law could allow people from states with lagging concealed carry training and requirements to travel into North Carolina without meeting the Tarheel State’s standards for a permit.

“’Many states do not have strong requirements for getting a concealed carry weapons permit that we have here in North Carolina. It totally undermines states’ rights,’ said Becky Cearta executive director of Durham-based North Carolinians Against Gun Violence.”

NC Congressman Robert Hudson must be a fan of ‘Westworld’. How else to explain his proposed legislation concerning conceal carry reciprocity? He proposes that residents of states that issue gun permits with little regulation and no training, be allowed to bring their weapons to cities and states that have very deliberate regulations and mandatory training requirements.

So much for states’ rights.

But, the argument goes, we need good guys with guns to stop bad guys with guns. Even putting aside who’s who in that equation - does he watch the news? The judgment of trained police officers is under scrutiny and he wants us to trust the instincts of untrained, private citizens?

Opponents of gun control like to point to the cities and states that have tough gun laws on the books but continue to suffer gun violence. What they don’t mention is the reason for this: it doesn’t matter what one state prohibits if another allows it. Gun Control advocates have never managed to get the sweeping mandate they need to make gun control work. It would be both sad and ironic if Mr. Hudson achieved such a mandate for his guns-out-of-control scheme.

Although legislators frequently express respect for law enforcement officers, some seem determined to make their jobs harder. One such legislator is Rep. Richard Hudson, of Concord, NC, who recently introduced the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act 2017” to Congress.

This law exempts gun owners from following other states’ conceal carry permit laws when they travel outside their own states, as long as they abide by local laws. When encountering individuals from out of state carrying guns, law enforcement officers have no national database to ensure the individuals are permitted to conceal carry.

Some states have such lax laws for gun ownership that felons and individuals with a history of domestic violence and alcohol and drug abuse are allowed to conceal carry.

As a citizen of North Carolina, I can influence my legislators to create common-sense gun laws. But I have no influence on legislators in Texas, Vermont, and Florida, whose gun laws are more lax than North Carolina’s. Why should I be forced to accept their statutes in my own state?

Introducing this legislation, Rep. Hudson has put the National Rifle Association and a small percentage of gun owners before the safety of law enforcement and his own constituents.

“When Esteban Santiago was in an Alaska FBI office in November, saying his mind was being controlled by US intelligence, he left a gun in his car.

“Santiago's rambling walk-in interview at the Anchorage office was concerning enough for authorities to take away his gun and order a mental health evaluation. But it wasn't enough to get him mentally adjudicated, which would have prohibited Santiago from owning a gun.”

If he had lived in WA or CA those authorities could have petitioned a judge to have his guns removed based on his concerning behavior. We need these same protections everywhere!

“Tragically, there are scores of other examples like these. To be sure, not all abusive men turn into killers; they are a minuscule percentage of the whole. But domestic violence is far too common, with 1 in 4 women expected to be a victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime.

“We know that some men who abuse will go on to commit more serious crimes. Men who strangle their partners, for example, are seven times more likely to eventually kill them. In the U.S., around three women a day are killed by intimate partners. In many of those cases, the women were abused by their partners before they were murdered.”

The New York Times Opinion Section: "When a man at a Florida airport retrieves his luggage, takes out a gun and kills five people, the only part people are surprised about is that it happened at an airport.

“We will be arguing for a while about whether background checks could have stopped the Florida airport shooting. But either way, sensible regulation of gun sales will still be sensible regulation of gun sales.

We strongly disagree with Rep. Hudson on this issue. Many states do not have strong requirements for getting a concealed carry weapons permit that we have here in NC. It totally undermines states rights.

“U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, made expanding national rights for gun owners his top priority on the first day of his third term in Congress.”

“Every year in the U.S., more than 30,000 people die from things related to guns.

“That puts guns ahead of HIV, Parkinson's disease, malnutrition, hypertension, intestinal infection, peptic ulcer, anemia, viral hepatitis, biliary tract disease, atherosclerosis and fires. Yet, the funding for research on gun violence lags far behind other leading causes of death, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association."